Great budget laptop with many features
Written: Aug 24 '03
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Pros: Good price, highly configurable, wireless networking option, good looking
Cons: Noisy fan, somewhat heavy for frequent travel
The Bottom Line: You can get what you want in a laptop without paying too much for it.
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| zan720's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario 2100US (DB954A) PC... |
When I moved back home for my final semester of college I decided to invest in a laptop to bring my work with me back and forth. I was looking for laptops that would be configurable so I could get exactly what I wanted, nothing more, nothing less. Though I heard many good things about Sonys and Dells, adding options quickly became expensive. At Best Buy they have a "Creation Station" that allows you to configure HPs, Compaqs, and Sonys so I configured them all and Compaq came out to be the cheapest.
After a week and a half, my silver and black laptop was delivered. Here are some of the features:
Processor:
I chose the Athlon mobile XP 2400 (1.8 GHZ) processor. So far it has run everything smoothly including DVDs and processor intensive programs like Matlab and Photoshop. I was previously used to an Athlon 800 MHZ processor on my desktop machine, so this was a definite plus. As most processors do, this one gets pretty warm. When the fan comes on it's kind of noisy, but nothing that bothers me too much, and it's still quieter than my desktop machine.
Memory:
I got 512 MB of RAM. Since the video card shares the memory with your system memory, only 448 MB goes towards applications. This is still more than enough for the tasks that I need to perform.
Display: The display is a 15" SXGA which runs at a higher resolution than XGA displays. The colors aren't as bright as on a desktop, but I barely notice it except for when doing graphics work when precise colors do matter.
In addition:
The laptop came with built in wireless networking (802.11b standard) which has a handy on/off button for when you're not around a wireless hub. I opted for a DVD/CD-RW drive which has worked flawlessly thus far. It also has a row of buttons at the top for easy access to email and the web, though I never use them. There are handy microphone, headphone, volume, and mute controls on the side, 2 USB ports in the back, regular LAN port, modem port, open PC card slot, serial and monitor jacks, S video out, firewire port, and printer port.
Minor grievances:
Other than the things mentioned above, I found a few annoyances that might just be specific to me or my machine. Hauling this 7.25 lb thing around campus became a pain after a while, but I am also find carrying a text book or two to be a similar pain (I am kind of a weakling). When I first got it, the touchpad didn't work right, but I think it was a faulty driver because I uninstalled and reinstalled and it worked fine. One of my USB ports didn't work (and looked kind of banged up, though I don't know if I did it). After a month it started working again and has been fine since.
The price I listed below was after $250 in rebates from Best Buy and Compaq.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $1023
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
zan720
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Location: Alexandria, VA
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Engineer, sales associate
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